A long-running joke between Kevin Robin and Sanjay Maharaj eventually evolved into The Little Big Cup, a restaurant hugging one of the two bayous coursing through Arnaudville.

Situated on the banks of Bayou Fuselier on the aptly named Fuselier Road, the one-time a coffee shop and art gallery has grown into a contemporary eatery with downhome Cajun and Creole cooking.

"There's a lot of folks trying to get things done and see the visions they had to make the town a little bit better place to live and raise their families," said Robin. "This kind of got all incorporated into that."

In many ways, the restaurant mirrors the changes Arnaudville is experiencing these days, such as the expansion of the NuNu Art and Cultural Collective, Semaine Française d'Arnaudville held the past two consecutive years, and the overnight accommodations expected soon along the bayou in the Deux Bayous Cultural District.

But for Maharaj and Robin, it all goes back to a coffee shop, or lack thereof, because when they moved to Arnaudville, Robin recalled, "the question, that's a long-running joke now (at Maharaj's expense), was, 'Where's the Starbucks in town?'"

And Robin's response would be: "You want Starbucks, you'll have to build one." And so they did, but it wasn't a franchise coffee shop as the two joined the renaissance already underway in Robin's hometown.

"Eventually we decided to turn it into an art gallery when a couple of local sons and daughters moved back and started bringing back some of what they'd seen in the places they'd lived," said Robin. "And they just started to apply some kind of progressive concepts into redefining our cultural identity, so to speak, as a way to express themselves."

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The brunch buffet at the Little Big Cup in Arnaudville, La., feature a variety of items including cinnamon rolls, biscuits, boudin, and jambalaya, Saturday, July 26, 2014. Paul Kieu, The Advertiser(Photo: Paul Kieu, The Advertiser)

"We started this endeavor to basically have some extra burners and cooking space to move it from my family's (catering) business that had been in operation since 1934," Robin said. "That was originally my great-grandparents business."

So the two bought the building next door mostly to "house paper products and stuff like that for the store," said Robin. "It just kind of grew into this monster that swallowed up an abandoned building that came up for sale next door."

The adjacent building became a spacious, well-lit and comfortable dining room with plants and even overstuffed chairs just steps away from the two-tier deck marked with flowered tables outside that ventures down to the bayou.

"So it just became a place we wanted to create where people could meet and tell their stories and be one of those easy nucleuses in town where people could feel like they're coming back home," Robin said. "Kind of like what my family's supermarket (Russell's Food Center) had become in a lot of ways — the nucleus for the town."

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Oran Lambright scoops brunch food from the buffet at the Little Big Cup in Arnaudville. Paul Kieu, The Advertiser(Photo: Paul Kieu, The Advertiser)

And the Little Big Cup is all that, as well as an incubator of sorts where young Cajun musicians in the form of Les Petits D'Acadie and the LeBlanc Family Band serenade diners during Saturday and Sunday brunches.

"We're excited about having the younger kids display their talents and using the Little Big Cup to play their music and stuff," said Maharaj. "I think it's kind of catching on, the younger folks are able to come and play. Last Sunday, people got up — we don't have a dance floor — but they wanted to dance and it really motivated the kids; they enjoyed playing for a crowd.

"We kind of want to encourage that a little more, use the restaurant as a platform for younger kids to come play music or share what they want to do," he said. "It's encouraging for them. We're going to foster that a lot the next few weekends; have the younger generation share their views on French Cajun music."

All of this is a far cry from Maharaj's previous occupation as a branch manager for Wells Fargo in the heart of Times Square.

"It's different from New York. The people are nicer and the food is delicious," Maharaj said. "But we've been so busy trying to make the restaurant operate the right way — the decorum, the dishes, the service and those things — so I'm actually busier here than I was in New York," he said. "Who would have ever imagined being busier in Arnaudville than New York City."

Between things like coordinating a 30-member staff and the turnover typical of the business, it's easy to imagine how things could be chaotic.

"It took some time to find the right people and put them in the right places," said Maharaj. "Sometimes that meant moving around people who we hired for one position, but turned out a better fit somewhere else."

"I wanted some stuff I'd get in New York. And Kevin, of course, being from Arnaudville, sharing his Cajun expertise on what the locals may like and coming up with the right blend," Maharaj said. "We still feel we have some room to grow. We want to have a menu that a vegetarian or a Vegan person can come sit down and enjoy a meal just as a meat eater would, or someone who enjoys seafood.

"That's our goal, to have some healthy and different options, as well, for different people who eat different foods," said Maharaj. "So right now, it's Cajun and then we have a salad that people love, but we want to make sure we're covering all the bases that anybody can come to the restaurant and find something."

And in their own way, that's what Maharaj and Robin may have done when they returned to Robin's roots: found something they may not have known they were looking for.

"It's really surprising, in a world where people are kind of leapfrogging over each other as they scratch their heads trying figure out what's the prescription to live a life that makes us happy," Robin said. "Going back and using some of the best of those cultural touchstones are the way to inform us, a prescription, if you will, of a way to live our life that has deep meaning and authenticity.

"And, you know," he added with a chuckle. "You get some good food out of it."